While making Noscope January, quietly and in the comfort of my own home, large parts of Asia and Oceania were hit by devastating tsunamis. The randomness with which such disasters happen, is the same randomness that drives me, during these monthly sessions. As such, it is with the outmost humility and respect for the victims of said disasters, that I feel it appropriate to dedicate this installment.
Needless to say, I would like to encourage everyone to help. The most effective way is by making a monetary donation directly to an organisation you trust.
About "Frost"
"Frost" is based on photos I took during a recent visit to Sweden. This is nothing new, as many of my past installments have revolved around the same theme. But it was a conscious choice to keep things simple and easy. After all, it's easier to elaborate on a fleshed out theme, than it is to re-invent the wheel every month, and there are many things one would rather do in the last week of December.
In the end, however, I think the images turned out alright, albeit a little uninspired.
The format is the same as last month, which has a widescreen feel that seamlessly melts into the bottom whitespace. The composition is also straightforward; some 50% "action", and the rest of the image framing this.
As promised, the images rely heavily on textures to make the images different from plainly stylized imagery. I've tried to capture the feel of waking up a winter morning, wiping away the frost on your window and looking out at a white world.
As such, I've not only tried to add frosty textures, but also the illusion of glass, an effect which is most clearly defined in in image #2. This "glass effect" was basically achived by a) blurring the backround of where the glass would be, b) painting in 30% with a solid color to give some density, c) add textures and a fingerprint.
The fingerprint idea came from one of my texture photos where my sister had melted the frost on the window with her hand. Obviously her fingerprint wasn't visible, but merely "melting" the frost on the photos wasn't enough to convey the sense of glass, so I googled a fingerprint and simply added that. I know that such a "print-on-frost" could never happen in real life, but in this case, exaggeration helps to communicate.
Additionally, I added a "sparkler" that follows the mouse. It's been a long while since I actually properly used the Flash that all the Installments are embedded in. The sparkler is basically a particle spray that follows your mouse. Click anywhere on the Flash to disable it, click again to enable it. Alas, I must admit that it's a cheap effect, and it's not even put to as good use as it was the last time I used it. Nevertheless, I thought it added some dynamics to the images.
Music
The beautiful musical track is, as always, composed by Kate. Buy her record at CDbaby.
Listening to:
While making January, I was listening to M?m's On The Old Mountain Radio (Christian Kleine Mix) and Please Sing My Spring Reverb (Styromix by Styrofoam).
Due to the magic of computers, this entry, and the header image will automatically be online and available the 1st of January 2005 00:00:00.
Happy New Year!